Montenegro 2 England 2

When Fabio Capello began as England manager his ideal pre-match discussion would concern tactics, his feelings about the opposition and perhaps the occasional rearranging of reporters' digital recorders on the table in front of him to demonstrate different formations. He might throw in the odd reminiscence about Arrigo Sacchi and get out as quickly as possible.

The England manager said yesterday that it does not matter what players get up to off the field

It's just what all the Arsenal players could probably do with in these troubled times - a match with no urgent pressure, away from any glaring spotlight. Certainly that was the impression given off by Aaron Ramsey on the eve of Wales's European Championship qualifier against Switzerland in Swansea.

If nothing in this World Cup of rugby is likely to rival the depression caused by the disappearance through injury of the magnificent Daniel Carter, fresh evidence of the unprofessional conduct of some of the England players is, by a big margin, the nearest rival.

It is hard to see Gerrard playing for England past Euro 2012, as is the case for so many of the 30-somethings in the team

A defence is that rugby boys will be boys, but they are supposed to be professional competitors operating at the peak of a four-year cycle

Andrew Mitchell will tomorrow tell Conservative activists who want the Government to cut its £8bn-a-year aid budget that it is morally right and patriotic to help poor countries at a time of austerity in Britain.

The bosses of two of the world's biggest multi-national corporations were convicted by a jury of "ecocide" at the Supreme Court yesterday for destroying global ecosystems.

If Martin Johnson tells his men one more time that they must move on, he might just be mistaken for the leader of a Bedouin raiding party rather than the English rugby union team going, at last, into the sharp end of the World Cup.

England bring a sense of disarray but also a formidable capacity to find a level of defiance, a knack of growing strong at places where they should be broken

The Way I See It: It didn't take Mystic Meg to work out that the press would swoop on any Tindall misdemeanour, what with all his connections

As Zara Phillips landed in Dunedin yesterday trailing embarrassment and, we have to suspect, a considerable degree of humiliation, it was hard not to believe that England's manager Martin Johnson had compounded one folly with another.

Manager had promised firmness if the players proved that his faith in their maturity was misguided